Interactive Tutorial

This resource provides guidelines on how to start planning a course. It covers the importance of planning, how to get started using course planning tools, and how to develop a draft syllabus and schedule.

Ideas for CPD interventions
The resource might assist academics in pre-planning a course, so that they can understand planning processes and how long the planning will take. Could be used as pre-workshop reading or as a resource to discuss during a short staff training session. 

This chapter provides guidance on developing student personas, which are fictional representations of typical students in the course being designed. The multimedia chapter explains how to create these personas and presents arguments for why they are a valuable design tool.

Ideas for CPD interventions
Ask staff to develop a student persona for existing courses and then to evaluate their course to determine if the design supplies sufficient academic, technical, and logistical support.

This is an online 'mini course' designed to help academics create outcomes and assessments for their courses. It covers instruction on outcomes, objectives, learning modalities, and assessments. The course includes activities, links to additional resources (such as revised Bloom's taxonomy and assessment plans), and examples across various subjects and topics.

Ideas for CPD interventions
It is a valuable resource for early career and intermediate academics wishing to learn more about developing outcomes and associated assessments. The pressbook chapter contains text, diagrams, and activities that can be adapted for a formal CPD workshop or can be used as reflective independent study.

Great reading, with embedded videos, that provides a process for selecting appropriate content for your course. It is very practical with lots of tips and tricks. It also makes an argument for avoiding PowerPoint.

Ideas for CPD interventions
Encourage staff to read the article and view the videos. Then encourage them to do an analysis of an existing course. How might additional content/media support both the delivery of the content and enhance understanding of course components that traditionally are done poorly by students?

This resource distinguishes between the overarching structure of a course and the structure of individual modules, units, or weekly topics. It explains the importance of making structure explicit. Although focused on online course structure, the principles described and exemplified are common across most courses. The course models what it espouses throughout the text and provides numerous examples across several disciplines. The course is very well structured itself, with numerous visuals.

Ideas for CPD Interventions
The Pressbooks chapter acts like a mini course. It would be easy to reorganise it to be the material for a CPD workshop on course design. There are numerous examples to copy and\or use as templates for the design of a new course.

This reading champions authentic assessment. How can we make our assessments 'real' rather than theoretical? It looks at a strategy to design, develop, and mark authentic assessments.

Ideas for CPD Interventions
This would be a good reading for educators involved in the education of professionals that will have a specific task to perform on completion of their studies, such as doctors, nurses, engineers, and educators.

This is a short course that focuses on how to adapt an existing course for an online environment. It addresses key considerations, such as how to choose the most effective means for delivering your content in the online version of your course and practices for developing asynchronous video and textual content.

Ideas for CPD interventions
It was designed as a self-study course and is fully contained. It can be offered as either independent self-study or as the background material for a more extensive CPD workshop on the subject.

This module examines key principles for creating authentic peer teaching and learning opportunities for students. It focuses on authentic learning online and is a great resource for academics who teach in online or blended learning environments. The module is particularly beneficial because it addresses tools to foster greater learner-learner and teacher-learner connection, including how to select communication and collaboration tools.

Ideas for CPD Interventions
This resource is rich with suggestions for learner-centric design. Staff could be encouraged to select a tool or guide and use it to develop a learner-centric activity for an existing course.

While the title is taken from a book, this short article concisely summarizes how to implement backward design. It demonstrates the critical role that assessment must play in course design and that it should be considered during the design phase so that it bolsters course activities and is aligned to course objectives.

Ideas for CPD Interventions
The article has a planning template that demonstrates the central role of assessment. This article can be used for staff CPD as is. It is a great article to share and encourage debate and comparison with how assessment is conducted at an educational institution.

A comprehensive overview of how assessment can provide a course with direction. It champions ‘constructive alignment’ theory and contrasts it to ‘backward design.’

Ideas for CPD Interventions
The whole resource is useful for CPD but the opening section is where an argument is made for assessment being central to the design of the course. This could be used for a debate or discussion.